Who's doing the alignment? When I purchased my last used MC it had a bent strut. When I disconnected the coupling at the transmission, the shaft was a good 1/4 inch out of alignment due to the previous owner driving around with a bent strut. How far out of alignment do you have to be in order to actually snap a shaft in half????

Who's doing the alignment? When I purchased my last used MC it had a bent strut. When I disconnected the coupling at the transmission, the shaft was a good 1/4 inch out of alignment due to the previous owner driving around with a bent strut. How far out of alignment do you have to be in order to actually snap a shaft in half????

If the shaft is out of alignment, it will create cyclical loading bending forces on the shaft as the shaft rotates. The more times the shaft rotates, the more load cycles the shaft goes through. Each loading cycle causes metal fatigue, and eventually a crack will develop and the shaft will fail.

I would think there would be some noticeable vibrations to go along with the misalignment long before the shaft failed, though.

it felt as if I was in an old truck as far as the vibrations go... The shaft snapped when I put it in reverse to park the boat. As far as I can see the bushing was good and the strut didn't have any visible problem. The lower broken part was rotating smoothly through the bushing/strut... Does a machine exist that can align the shaft or is it done manually ?

it felt as if I was in an old truck as far as the vibrations go... The shaft snapped when I put it in reverse to park the boat. As far as I can see the bushing was good and the strut didn't have any visible problem. The lower broken part was rotating smoothly through the bushing/strut... Does a machine exist that can align the shaft or is it done manually ?